Method of making nut buttons



April 13, 1937- w. c. ANDERSON METHOD OF MAKING NUT BUTTONS Original Filed Nov. 5, 1934 0 n5 m% r y a? w Patented Apr. 13, 1937 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE METHOD or MAKING NUT BUTTONS Original application November 5, 1934, Serial No. 751,501. Divided and this application June 15,

1935, Serial No. 26,849

2 Claims.

My invention aims to provide improvements in the method of making buttons.

This application isa division of my prior application Serial No. 751,501, filed November 5,

1934, and now issued as Patent No. 2,007,628, dated July 9, 1935.

In the drawing, which illustrates preferred forms of my invention:--

Figure 1 is a side view of a button formed from a whole castana;

Fig. 2 is a side view of a button made from a black walnut;

Fig. 3 is a button made from a whole pecan;

Fig. 4 is a section taken on the line 44 of Fig.3;

Fig. 5 is a side view of a button made from a portion of the shell of a black walnut;

Fig. 6 is a back view of the button shown in Fig. 5;

Fig. 7 is a section taken on the line l! of Fig. 5;

Fig. 8 is a side view of a button incorporating the cup of an acorn; and

Fig. 9 is a back view of the button shown in Fig. 8.

The present invention relates to a new and improved method of making buttons and the like, and aims generally to provide a new, distinctive and economical method of making the same.

According to the invention, the button or like fastening means is made from a vegetable nut I, either the whole or a part thereof, the nut part being cleaned, smoothed and polished so as to present a pleasing appearance, and then provided with a suitable fastener by means of which it may be secured, as by sewing, to a garment or the like. I have found that most vegetable nuts make satisfactory heads for buttons and like fasteners and when properly processed are pleasing in appearance, are durable, and do not stain the clothing of the wearer.

Many of the rougher shell nuts, such as the black Walnut, peach stone, butternut and certain of the species of almonds are, in their natural state, wholly unsuitable as buttons and dress ornaments, partly because of their rough deeply grooved shell and partly because of the stain contained in the grooves. For example, as illus trated in Fig. 2, the black walnut with the outer 5 skin removed is characterized by a coarse rough deep groove 4, and sharp rough ridges 5, and the grooves between the ridges often carry a stain which would render the nut unsuitable as a button or dress ornament.

5 Accordingly such nut is first sand-blasted to thoroughly clean it and to remove from the grooves any material carrying a stain. The rough ridges 5 are then dressed down to present smooth, flat-topped ridge-like surfaces (see Figs.

2, 5 and 7) and this may be effected by subject- 5 ing the nuts to a grinding medium or by tumbling them in a tumbling device or both, depending upon the character of the nut and the degree of smoothness desired.

The sand-blasting treatment thoroughly cleans 10 the groove portion of the nut shell and removes all foreign material, particularly the skin which contains a stain and also removes certain of the rough edges or barbs that may be snagged in the fabric of the wearing apparel. The grinding or 15 dressing down of the ridges tends to smooth the nut as a whole and provides a series of flat topped ridges. The nut is then polished, or dyed and polished, and when completed presents a very striking appearance since the ridges ,re- 20 main comparatively light under polishing while the groove portions take on a darker color, as illustrated in Fig. 3.

The whole nut, thus cleaned, ground and p01- ished, is then suitable for use as a button or like 25 ornament. It may be attached by any conventional method, as for example, by inserting a screw eye 2 into the shell, or if desired, a plurality of holes may be drilled through the nut by means of which the nut may be sewed to the gar- 30 ment or other support.

The button or fastening need not necessarily be formed from a whole nut, but may be formed from a half or partial section of the nut as illustrated in Fig. 5. In this instance the nut is sand- 35 blasted, ground, or tumbled, as above described, and then is sawed, preferably along a natural divide between the two shells, either longitudinally or transversely. The meat or portion of the kernel is then removed and the interior may 40 be further cleaned by sand-blasting, if desired. The portions of the shell may then be polished or dyed and polished as desired and fitted with an attaching means, such as a screw eye 2, or holes may be drilled to provide eyelets to enable the nut button to be sewed to the garment. In the case of black walnuts when out transversely, the interior shell structure is such as to provide natural eyelets for sewing the button to the garment, and when the button is formed of a half black walnut cut transversely, it is only necessary to drill holes in the outer shell in continuation of the natural eyelets to enable the button to' be sewed to the garment. 55

Other types of nuts such as the castana, pecan, hazlenut and certain of the almond species are not characterized by a rough, deeply grooved shell; but on the other hand have a 5 relatively smooth shell. Such nuts require only a light sand-blasting and buflmg to remove Whatever roughness they may have and will then take on a high polish, making an extremely attractive button.

I have found that buttons made as above described are very desirable and will take practically any degree of polish and provide exceptionally attractive buttons for many different types of garments and materials.

It is to be understood that in describing my invention above with specific reference to certain specific types of vegetable nuts, I do not intend to be restricted to the specific species named, but merely refer to these species as characteristic of certain groups of Vegetable nuts. Obviously the invention is applicable to other species of nuts than those named and is to be construed in accordance with the appended claims.

I claim:

1. The method of making buttons and the like from natural vegetable nuts having rough, coarse ridged shells which comprises sandblasting the nuts to thoroughly clean the shell of all foreign and stain-containing matter, grinding the ridges to produce relatively broad polish-carrying surfaces, tumbling the cleaned and ground nuts to smooth the surface of the shell, and then polishing the nut to produce a polished button having the appearance of the nut from which it was made.

2. The method of making buttons and the like from natural vegetable nuts having rough, coarse ridged shells which comprises sand-blasting the nuts to thoroughly clean the shell of all foreign and stain-containing matter, grinding the ridges to produce relatively broad polishcarrying surfaces, cutting the nut into sections, and tumbling the nut pieces to smooth the surface of the shell, and then polishing the nut pieces to produce buttons having the appearance of the shell structure of the natural nut from which they are made.

WARREN C. ANDERSON. 

